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Folks have been making ultralight camping and travel gear out of Tyvek for decades. However, if you research the practice, you may discover why stuff made of Tyvek is not ubiquitous: Tyvek totally blows. Twenty years ago specially treated softened Tyvek was used for bike jackets. They are now collectors items for only one reason: Tyvek totally blows. It's noisy, uncomfortable, ugly, and the graphics wear off because the stuff cannot be over-dyed, printed or painted with conventional equipment.

There is nothing easy about crafting Tyvek. You can cut it to size for a tent footprint but just TRY to put it through a home sewing machine. The footprint will be hard to fold. Anything sewn leaks and the needle holes create a line that separates like the reader response cards in Adventure Cyclist magazine.

For many crafters, recycling Tyvek into bags, wallets, and wearables isn’t new. This material commonly used in building materials, billboards, and mailing envelopes is beginning to become more “mainstream” as many projects have appeared in books such as Betz White’s Sewing Green and Simplicity’s Go Green patterns. Looking to try this product out for yourself? Be sure to check out the awesome projects here on BurdaStyle (like nycdesigner’s awesome jacket) or Material Concepts – a website devoted to innovative Tyvek uses. Be sure to read up on how to work with this material before you sew -great information from du Pont themselves!

Tyvek is a material that is cheap, breathable, waterproof, windproof, and light weight. Trace lines on the material that will fit your size for jacket and pants. Cut out two pieces for each. Tape them together with Tyvek tape and there you are. Tents, bivy bags, jackets, rain flies, and tarps are easily made. It breathes like Gore Tex. It is more durable than Gore Tex. It is very light in weight.

Of course, it does not look all that spiffy like some people all decked out in $400.00 Gore Tex jackets riding $1500.00 touring bikes, but it does the same thing and has the same benefits to its users. One guy got a 50 foot by 9 foot roll of it for $50.00 at Craigslist. It could cost $150.00 at Home Depot or Lowe's for a 50 by 9 roll. It sells by the yard in some places. It cuts easily but is very difficult to tear. You could make a breathable waterproof lightweight tent with plenty of space with a floor for maybe $25.00-$45.00, maybe less. No sewing. Just use Tyvek tape or outdoors, doublefaced, carpet tape for the seams.